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"Right in the butt. A zip up in a tree, maybe three hundred yards out."
I looked at my watch. I didn't want to talk more about the war, but it was obvious that he did. His eyes wandered over my face, as though he were searching for a piece of knowledge there that had eluded him in his own life. Then because I had to say something, I asked him a question that produced a strange consequence.
"What was your outfit?"
"Third Battalion, Seventh Regiment, First Marine Division," he said, and smiled.
"Oh yeah, you guys were around Chu Lai."
The skin of his face tightened.
"How do you know that?" he said.
"I was there," I said, confused.
"You were in Chu Lai?" The skin around his eyes and nostrils was white.
"No, I mean I was in Vietnam. I knew some Marines who were around Chu Lai, that's all."
"Who were these guys?"
"I don't even remember their names, Tony."
"I just wondered."
"Are you all right, partner?"
He widened his eyes and breathed air up through his nose.
"It was a fucking meat grinder, man," he said.
"Maybe it's time to give it the deep six."
"What?"
"We didn't ask to get sent over there. A time comes when we stop dragging the monsters around."
"You saying I did something over there?"
"If you didn't, you saw it done."
He looked at me a long moment, his mouth a tight line.
"You're an unusual man," he said.
"I don't think so."
"One day just kick the door shut on Shitsville?"
"You already lived it. Why watch the replay the rest of your life?"
"Some guys say the war's never over."
"It is for me."
"No dreams?"
I didn't answer.
